WILLMAR — Summer vacation will be a little shorter and the football season will be a little longer for two area prep teams this year.

Minnewaska Area and MACCRAY are among 12 Minnesota high school football programs that, for the first time in 2011, will be allowed to open practices a week earlier and play their first games of the season a week earlier under new Minnesota State High School League rules designed to aid teams that encounter scheduling problems.

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